>> last night's storms dropped heavy rain and caused a stretch of rhode island avenue northwest to flood. cars were stranded. one driver was rescued. so what immediate help can bloomingdale residents expect from the d.c. government to stop the flooding? our bruce johnson sought answers from the director of the d.c. water department. they went for a walk through that neighborhood this afternoon. >> last night we had a storm of very significant proportions, reports of over 2 inches to over 3 1/2 inches of rain in just over an hour. when there's that much rain and the pipes themselves aren't big enough to handle that much rainwater in, the short term we don't have an immediate solution. >> reporter: you give us an answer for what happened last night, but what about the other four flooding situations we had? >> they closed down part of -- >> the weather report data shows the storms that are hitting are unusual in intensity. three of the four last

intensity rain events have been in july. this is where tiger creek used to flow through, so a lot of stormwater will flow through this neighborhood and third, the system put in place was very big and that's not big enough to handle all the flow now from what's been channeled to it. there's a lot of steps that any individual homeowner or dweller can do. first we want to make sure sewer backups don't happen. d.c. water has a new program. we've never done this, but wen the challenges in this area -- we understand the challenges in this area, but we will provide up to 90% or $3,000 of the cost of a back flow preventer. secondis what's flowing over the surface, street flooding and that means having a barrier. in some of the older units you'll see there are step up before there are steps down to the basement apartment. that's the idea that, if it comes over the curb it doesn't immediately flow into a basement apartment. if those don't exist you can build them and in the short term make sure there's sandbags so every basement unit has their own site specific plan. >> mayor vincent gray a mounted a task force to study --

appointed a task force to study the flooding problem in bloomingdale. george hawkins says the long term solution involves a deeper and bigger draining system, but that won't be in place for years. >> flooding is a possibility tonight. topper issued a yellow alert for the chance of more storms. >> i think we're looking at the possibility of a few more storms. your cookout sha be safe the next couple hours and -- should be safe the next couple hours and the storms went north and east of us. we do have some heavy thunderstorms in w of with. those should pass -- west virginia. those should pass into garrett county and the other storms that were in the delmarva earlier have gone up into new jersey. in the immediate future the next few hours we are fine, nothing in the immediate metro area between warrenton, down towards fredericksburg, la plata, toward dunkirk and up

toward frederick. temps aren't bad, but boy, the humidity is, 82 downtown, 79 gaithersburg, 79 manassas but it feels like mid- to upper 80s. tonight mostly cloudy, muggy, a few storm possible, nothing in the next few hours, lows 68 to 74. we'll come back and talk about when the remnants of isaac will finally leave us alone. well, tomorrow the democratic national convention kicks off in charlotte, north carolina, but the party is already going in the queen city. the convention's host committee put on a day long street celebration called carolina fest 2012. over at bank of america stadium crews are putting final uches in place before president obama gives his nomination acceptance speech on thursday. democrats are now preparing their counter to the republicans' message last week in tampa, but so far the party finds itself on the defensive responding to questions of whether america is better off today than it was four years ago. emily schmidt has more on how democratic leaders are answering those questions.

>> reporter: just as charlotte, north carolina, prepares to be the center of the democrats' political universe this week, party leaders found themselves talking as muff about the past four years as about the up-- much about the past four years as about the upcoming few days. it started with the sunday talk shows. >> can ask you honestly say people are better off today than four years ago? >> no, but that's not the question of this election. >> reporter: monday o'malley tried to rework the message by saying the country is clearly better off. >> we are clearly better off as a country because we're now creating jobs rather than losing them, but we have not recovered all that we lost in the bush recession. >> reporter: vice president joe biden said the same thing at an aflcio rally. >> you want to know whether we're better off. i got a little butcher sticker for you. osama bin laden is -- bumper sticker for you. osama bin laden is dead and general motors is alive. >> reporter: president obama continued the theme in ohio. >> i believe in you. i'll bet on you.

i'll make that bet any day of the week and because of that bet three years later that bet is paying off for america. >> reporter: republican presidential oenomania mitt romney took the holiday off while his running mate paul ryan went to north carolina a few hours away from the democrats' convention site. >> every president since the great depression who asked americans to send them into a second term could say that you are better off today than four years ago except for jimmy carter and for president barack obama. >> reporter: it's a sign the better off today than you were yesterday battle is likely to linger for a bit longer. in washington i'm emily schmidt. a new poll shows last week's republican convention didn't do that much to help romney swing voters his way. that poll was released today by gallup and shows 40% of adults are more likely to support romney after the convention and 38% say they're less likely to

support him. these numbers are very close to polling after senator john mccain was nominated in 2008. the presidential election still 65 days away, but polls are open in some parts of northern virginia tomorrow for a special election. it's to pick a new delegate in the 45th district to replace democrat david england. he resigned earlier this summer after an extramarital affair became public. his district includes parts of fairfax and arlington counties and the city of alexandria. polls are open tomorrow from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. tonight we're getting a closer look at an incident that led to a lawsuit against prince george's county and criminal charges against one of its officers. attorney jimmy belle gave us this surveillance video. he represents 19-year-old ryan dorm. bell says this video is from february and shows corporal donald taylor approaching dorm striking him with a gun causing that gun to go off. nobody was hurt by the gunshot, but officer taylor was charged with lying about his version of how his gun discharged that

night. he faces trial in november. >> when a police officer knows when you assault someone, when you violate their civil rights and when you lie about it that they can go to jail, not just lose their processions and job but go to jail, you change the culture and that's what my client wants to do. >> ryan dorm spent four months behind bars before prosecutors dropped all charges. his lawsuit seeks $10 million in damages. still to come on 9news the clean-up from hurricane isaac continues on the gulf coast as some people finally head back to their flooded out homes. >> but first a suicide bomber in pakistan targets a u.s. vehicle and he was packing hundreds of pounds of explosives, the investigation and the news behind it next.

an emotional tribute today

in edgewater, maryland, as the body of a fallen navy seal came home. hundreds lined route 2 to honor special warfare petty officer first class patrick feeks as police escorted his body to his hometown. feeks was killed last month when his helicopter crashed during a firefight in afghanistan. he'll be laid to rest wednesday at arlington national cemetery. a suicide bomber targeted a u.s. government vehicle in pakistan today and killed two pakistanis, injured dozens more including two americans in the city of peshawar. as the car left the american embassy, the suicide bomber packed his own car with 240 pounds of explosives and then slammed into the u.s. vehicle. >> we pray for the safe recovery of both american and pakistani victims and once again we deplore the cowardly act of suicide bombing and terrorism. >> so far no claims of responsibility, but visitors suspect this may be the work of

taliban and al-qaeda militants. our weekend's dreary weather sticks around for the holiday. what happens in the workweek? topper's full forecast is coming up do. wesee some sunshine? >> but first more and more people buy organic foods. they think they're healthier, but a new study says it may not be worth your money. we'll talk about it next.

in tonight's health alert the dangerous effects of obesity not just on the body,

about the mind. researches are studied 110 teens and their school performance. those with metabolic syndrome, a combination of obesity, high cholesterol and high blood pressure had lower math scores and couldn't read as well. those kids also had smaller brain areas involved in learning and memory. researchers say the results show even short term impairment to metabolism can affect the brain. are we wasting our money when we buy organic food? americans have gone from spendi 3.6 billion on organic in 1997 to more than $26 billion these days. a study just released in the annals of internal medicine find no big difference in nutritional value between organic and conventional foods, even the difference in pesticide risk pretty minimal. >> i don't know. i like to see numbers. >> i don't believe it. >> i'm sure it's a study done by somebody with financial and commercial interests. >> in fact, this is independent research funded by the american

college of physicians. it includes a review of 17 human studies and hundreds of studies of unprocessed foods, fruit, vegetables, grains, milk, eggs and meat. the findings did show organic produce is 30% less likely to have pesticide residue, but the levels of contamination in nonor gang foods are far below -- nonorganic foods are far below dangerous levels. >> i don't know. maybe it's not absolutely necessary to use them at all. it disappoints me. >> d.c. nutritional rebecca strihchfield says this may cause those people who shy away from colorful foods with contaminants especially if they can't afford organic foods. >> right now about 70% of americans don't get their daily fruits and vegetables needs. the most important thing is we get those colorful fruits and veggies on our plate whether conventional or organic. >> but she says human health concerns aren't the only reason

for choosing organic. >> ultimately it's a personal choice. for those with the income to do it and who consciously are thinking about the environment and farmers and the quality of the food supply, they're using their dollar to vote that they prefer organic foods. >> farmers markets local always a good option, too. no matter what kind of fruit and vegetables you choose it's important to wash them all thoroughly. a wildfire in california angeles national forest is now more than 4,000 acres large. it broke out around 2 p.m. yesterday near a campground and spread quickly. thousands of holiday campers and tourists were evacuated. the fire is 5% kahned but is headed further into the -- contained and is headed further into the forest away from any homes. more than 130,000 people in louisiana are still without power most outside the new orleans area and the protect of those crucial levees and many of them such as st. james and

st. tammany parish are still under water from flooding from isaac, but some in the areas where water has resided are allowed to go back home to bin the clean-up process. -- begin the clean-up process. they say living through a natural disaster causes massive stress and it stays with you for years. >> some of those people in plaquemines county can't get back to their homes yet and levees held very well in new orleans, but may have forced water in other suburbs. >> this is the first big test since katrina. >> we're looking at a muggy night no, doubt about that. it's humid outside, but we don't see anything on radar now which is good. let's start with a live look outside on our live weather cam looking west. we see some breaks in the clouds, so that's good. this is brought to you by michael and son. you see the temps and think that's nice, 82. it's not that nice when the dew point is 70, relative humidity 70%, winds out of the south, southeast at 7 keeping the easterly component in and add a little moisture to the air, pressure steady at 30 inches of mercury even and falling.

let's zoom in. we have sort of the remnants of isaac kind of meandering from the ohio valley east. we have a frontal boundary to our north. because that is lifted to our north for the time being that has decreased our threat of showers and thunderstorms greatly. most of the activity right along the front or north of it up into new jersey or into pennsylvania. radar is quiet. we see showers down to the south around stanton and culpeper, but i think for the next the bit we'll be in good shape. temperatures upper 70s, low 80s, nice but humid. 79 bethesda, 81 great falls, 80 vienna, 79 arlington, 83 college park, 81 sterling and leesburg and 79 out toward haymarket. so i think it's going to be humid and unsettled for a while but no storms the next couple hours and a few storms tonight. showers and storms again tomorrow and hot again on wednesday. that heat will be added to the humidity wednesday. tonight mostly cloudy, muggy, a few storms. now the storms that develop

could produce heavy rain because there's a lot of moisture in the atmosphere, lows 68 to 74, winds south, southeast at 10. so inside the beltway downtown not so comfortable tonight, 69 in gaithersburg, but 70 in rockville, 69 in reston but 73 in arlington and 72 over in college park. tomorrow morning becoming partly sunny and warm, slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm, but i think the morning commute will be dry. that will be one silver lining for what's a messy morning commute, 70s and 80s and by afternoon we're looking at temperatures again 84 to 89, more humid than anything and a few showers or thunderstorms are possible. now the next three days we'll keep it code yellow with a threat of storms on tuesday, wednesday, thursday, 87 tomorrow, 89 wednesday and then 91 on thursday. next seven days, well, we got showers in the forecast still on friday. saturday a cold front rolls through. that should finally clear us out and get rid of what's left of isaac. it's pretty toasty, low 90s as

we get into thursday, then upper 80s friday, but nice next week, back in the low 80s again. >> this is a great time of year coming up. >> yes, it is. up next on 9news. >> reporter: take a good look at these girls. someday they might be the olympic u.s. soccer team. i'm peggy fox. it all started in haymarket. i'll have the story coming up.

what does it take for a high school athlete to earn a college scholarship? just ask the vsa heat. this girls travel soccer team from haymarket, virginia, just won the national championship. as peggy fox reports they're just starting their senior year of high school and their college plans are set. >> reporter: what does it take to be the best? >> you have to have passion and commitment. >> reporter: after an undefeated season the vsa heat youth 17 girls soccer team out

of haymarket, virginia, won the national championship. in the tournament last month they played four gails and never gave up a goal. -- games and never gave up a goal. the final game score was 6-0. goalee taylor kirston had a lot to do with that but gives credit to her defenders. >> i would say definitely without a doubt we have the bess defense in the nation. >> reporter: the travel team was formed 10 years ago. in 2007 9news covered the u12 team when it was third in the nation. five of those girls are still with the team giving it all they've got. >> leave it all on the field. >> vsa! >> reporter: now players come from four counties, prince william, fairfax, fauquier, stafford and as far away as richmond. megan cox is from springfield. >> it's a good hour and 15 minutes drive. >> reporter: to play at this level the sacrifices are shared by their families. >> i don't remember the last family vacation we did to just

the beach. it's always to like soccer tournaments. >> it's a financial and a time commitment, but if your daughter loves it, you can't not do it. >> reporter: for the best players that cost may pay off in scholarships, which is ringing true with the vsa heat. there's 17 high school seniors and one high school junior and they all received officers for college scholarships to play soccer at division 1 schools. some have received full rides. savannah miller will play for auburn next year. >> all my life we've been committed to soccer, so i just want to keep going, see how far i can go with it. >> reporter: taylor kirston will play for wake forest. >> i've always dreamt about playing in the sec. it's crazy just to think. about it's a dream come true. >> reporter: while the girls look forward to their futures playing soccer in college and maybe beyond, they say they'll cherish the years playing the sport they love with their friends. >> the parents say they never pushed their daughters to play.

they say kids need to be self- motivated and love the sport to play at this level. as for the cost, one parent estimates spending about $25,000 over the year, most for travel to games and tournaments, but there are those college scholarships. that's our report. i'll be back here tonight at 11:00 with topper shutt. don't forget you can log on any time to www.wusa9.com. i'm anita brikman. happy labor day.

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